Argentina - It is all excitement - the team is nervous and the management and coaches are working hard to handle the pressure of the opening match, the importance of the World Championship and the special chorus to play at home, become positive energy. The team shows confidence, they have been playing some non-competitive matches and after winning most of them, they feel they are able to give a great performance. Yesterday they defeated Velazco's Czech Republic team 3 - 2 (25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-9) with all the players at one time or the other in the field.

Croatia - The men's national team will play friendly matches against the visiting Australians in mid August. They then travel to Osijek to train and play against Germany. In early September the Croatian men will participate in an international tournament in the Czech Republic along with 3 other national teams- Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Germany. Following will be friendly matches against Spain in their home country, then on to Argentina for the final phase of preparations.

Czech Republic - Talking to Julio Velazco - the Argentinian, former coach of the Argentine National Team 1982, coach of the Italian Team (seven years, many titles) coach of Lazio and Inter (soccer) and actual coach of the Czech Team, he expressed his hopes that his team will be among the 8 first teams but it will depend entirely in how the second matches cross is - some teams will have an easy cross and will reach the finals very easily, for others it will be terrible to reach decisive instances. "Brazil, Yugoeslavia are the strongest teams". "To play in Argentina the World Championship, is a very strong emotive fact, especially as the country is going through so much difficulty". About returning to work in Argentina he replies "No way, I enjoy being here but Europe has a completley different way of working and living - it is not just the economic problem - in the Czech Republic we have economic difficulties too, but for Argentine players and volleyball authorities it is important to do things, no matter if right or wrong, for the Europeans it is important to do them right - it is a gap hard to overcome. I already work and think the European way".

China - After a long-time break from the World League, Chinese men's team won four and lost eight at the World League from June 28-August 6. It finished third.
Chinese men volleyball scored a spectacular win over European powerhouse Italy at the League with an almost complete young squad. They made an eye-catching performance in matches against Spain and Venereal.
They will play a warm-up match against Denmark late this month for the preparation of the World Championships.

Greece - The Hellenic Men's National team now has some time off after the World League 2002 and will soon begin final preparations for the Championship. During this phase the team will play friendly matches against the USA at the end of August and will continue on to Argentina and play in a tournament against Argentina, Croatia, Spain and Australia.
The head coach, Stelio Prosalikas says, "We are satisfied because we played very well in the World League, in our second time in this event after a two-year absence. The 9th place we took is the base for the future. Our attention now is on the big event of the season, the World Championship and in the long run, the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. "

- YUGOSLAVIA - Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the Yugoslav and the Argentinian Volleyball Federations, the Yugoslav National Team has already agreed a plan for regular and conditioning trainings in Buenos Aires. Yugoslav Team departs from Yugoslavia on September 21, to arrive in Argentina the next day, and on September 24 and 25, Buenos Aires will host matches of our Team with the Polish and Bulgarian Teams. Our Team has already finished with the first part of their preparations on the mountain of Kopaonik. Until departure for Argentina they will continue with their preparations training in Belgrade.

Netherlands - Olof van der Meulen has made a return to the Dutch national team. The opposite hitter and member of the Netherlands line-up at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympics - where the Netherlands came home with the gold medal - is the only surprise name in the "Orange" formation ahead of this year's World Championship in Argentina.
Setter Nico Freriks, captain Reinder Nummerdor, outside hitter Guido Gortzen, opposite Richard Schuil, libero Joost Kooistra and middle blockers Sander Olsthoorn and Mike van de Goor (brother of Superstar Bas van de Goor) form the line-up for most of the preparation matches. 
Bas van de Goor, the team captain until 2000, recently announced that he will no longer be available for the Dutch national team. He is known to have suffered from health problems but says his decision to step down is not related. 
 The Dutch line-up will be able to flex their muscles in the 2002 World League.

Russia - The Russian side of coach Gennadi Chipouline includes several young players, including Taras Khtei, 20, and Semen Poltavsky, 21, as the squad prepares for a major tournament in Italy at the beginning of June. A number of the Russian stars are already well know to Volleyball fans in Italy, as they participate in club competitions there. 
Roman Iakovlev, Alexei Kazakov and Igor Choulepov were still involved with club matches when Chipouline and his new assistant coach first gathered the squad together in May in the Russian city of Belgorod (800 km from Moscow). From June 15^th, all of Russia’s elite players will continue with their concentrated preparation for the World League intercontinental round, culminating with the World League finals in Brazil at the beginning of August. 

  Tunisia-  Tunisia's National Men's team has a good program to prepare for World Championship. They will play four matches against France's A' team this week after playing with Italy on 6 July and Italy won 3/0 (25/19-25/19-25/23). Starting from the 22nd of July the team will travel to Finland to play four matches against the Finnish national team. They will then participate in the Arab championship in Amman, Jordan from 2-8 August with Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

USA - The U.S. Men's National Volleyball Team has a record of 9-11 after posting a record of 7-1 in a pair of four-match domestic tours against Australia and Canada in Louisville, Ky., June 26-July 7. 
The team went 4-0 against Australia, posting wins of 3-0, 3-0, 3-1 and 3-2. Team USA then lost its first match to Canada (3-0) before winning the final three meetings on the tour: 3-0, 3-2, 3-0.
"This has proven to be a very beneficial tour for us," said Team USA head coach Doug Beal. "We have a lot of young guys that gained valuable international experience. There was enough playing and practice time that we were able to make significant evaluations of all the players. We certainly have a good group from which we can prepare some players for the 2002 World Championships and beyond. There is a lot of work to do, but this tour shows that we are headed in the right direction."
The United States now has more than a month off from competition before leaving for tours in Bulgaria and Greece in mid-August. The U.S. will then host Italy in a domestic tour in September before departing for the 2002 Men's Volleyball World Championships in Argentina Sept. 28-Oct. 13.

Egypt - The Egyptian men start an important stage in the preparation for the World Championship in Argentina on 19/8/2002 by participating in a friendly tour in Sofia, Bulgaria with USA, Slovakia and Bulgaria from 20,21,22,and 23 August. The team returns back to Egypt where they will begin a training camp until 11th September then leave for  Brazil to play 4 warm up matches, They then leave to Argentina to play another 4 matches against some teams of the finals

Australia - The Australian team, meanwhile playing some non-competitive matches in Azul, lost yesterday their second match - this time vs. Spain 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 32-30). The first match vs. Croatia was lost 3-1 and Greece will play them tonight.